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Adam, Robert. The Religious World Displayed; or, A View of... the Four Grand Systems of Religion, Judaism, Paganism, Christianity, and Mohammedism; and of the various existing denominations, sects and parties, in the Christian world. To which is subjoined, a view of deism and atheism. Edinburgh, James Ballantyne and Co., 1809. Edinburgh, James Ballantyne and Co., 1809. 8vo. 3 vols. Contemp. giltstamped calf with double giltstamped black spine labels; spines gilt; giltstamped borders to covers.

EUR 1,000.00

First edition of this encompassing study by the Rev. Robert Adam (1770-1825), long a standard work on the world's religions. - A prettily bound set from the library of the British philosopher of religion, David Arthur Pailin (b. 1936), with his bookplate.

First and only edition; inscribed copy. The author worked in the service of the Nawab (sovereign) of Tonk, in Hindustan. A Muslim, the Nawab in January 1870 received permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Ahmed Hassan accompanied him, and his account includes details of the crossing from Bombay to Jeddah, of the visits to Mecca and Medina, and of the continuation of his journey to England. The account is uncommon. - Occasional minute foxing to interior, otherwise a very fine copy in well-preserved original binding. Inscribed by the author on t. p.: "With the author's compliments".

Complete set of the first edition as issued by 1865. An index volume (not present here) was appended in 1866, but is not part of the basic series. Comprises: (vol. 1) Bengal, Burmah, and the Eastern Archipelago; (vol. 2) N.W. Provinces, Oudh, Nipal, the Punjah and the states on the Punjah frontier; (vol. 3) Peishwa, Nagpore and Bundelcund; (vol. 4) Rajpootana, Central, India, and Malwa; (vol. 5) Hyderabad, Mysore, Coorg, the Madras Presidency and Ceylon; (vol. 6) the states within the Bombay Presidency; (vol. 7) Sindh, Beloochiston, Persia, and Herat, Turkish Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian and African coasts. This final volume is especially fascinating for recording numerous treaties made with the tribes of the Arabian Gulf - the territory of Bahrain and the so-called "Maritime Tribes" of the Arabian coast. We find here the convention between Sheikh Mahomed bin Khulefa, ruler of Bahrain, to "abstain from all maritime aggressions of every description [...], so long as I receive the support of the British Government in the maintenance of the security of my own possessions", a treaty with the "pacificated" Arab tribes of the Gulf, describing (and picturing in colour!) the red flag they will use, and a treaty with "Sheikh Shabout of Abou Dabyee" to deliver all "vessels of the piratical powers" to General William Keir. Significantly, the contemporary rulers and their territories (e.g. "Rasool Khyma", "Shargah", "Amalgavine", "Dubey", "Ejman", and "Abouthabee") are noted by name. The treaties, mainly translated from the original Arabic, paint a remarkable picture of the political relations between the British and the small, independent tribes who ruled the coast during the mid-19th century. - Slight wear to extremities. Removed from the Public Libraries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with their bookplates on front pastedown. Complete sets of the present first edition are of the utmost rarity, the Burell copy (with only 2 maps present) commanded £6,000 more than a decade ago (Sotheby's, Oct 14, 1999, lot 34).

Extremely rare German slavery account by the Prussian clockmaker F. G. Albertus. Born in Potsdam in 1770, he visited Amsterdam in 1797, was press-ganged into joining an East India Company ship bound for Batavia, but fell into the hands of Tunisian pirates off the coast of Gibraltar. He details the horrors of his eight-year slavery in North Africa and mentions several of his fellow sufferers by name, including a Spanish Countess named Carolina who was captured at age 16 and was finally ransomed after nine years of slavery. Ultimately, Albertus is ransomed by a Dutch jeweller named Birkenthal and returns to Germany, physically broken but full of praise for the workings of God. - Trimmed rather closely (slight loss to text). Title page bears contemporary censorship stamp of the Delitzsch police. Of the utmost rarity: a single other copy is known (bound within sammelband A/31581:9 in the State and University Library of Hamburg).

Very rare first edition of Albert's general description of the earth, marking the inauguration of scientific geography as an independent discipline and the first attempt at a comparative geography. Edited by the Bavarian mathematician, astronomer and astrologer Georg Tannstetter, who was mainly active in Vienna. "Interesting to the American collector on account of a marginal note relating to Vespuccius, which seems to have been inserted with movable type, on the recto of the last leaf in signature d, after the book had been printed" (Sabin). The contemporary owner, too, has highlighted the name by a marginal ms. note, "Vespucius". Also treats the Middle East with the "sinus Persicus" and "sinus Arabicus" (f. J4r). At the end, Tannstetter provides a brief list of unprinted works by Albertus, to which the contemporary owner has added "De vegetabilis et plantis". - Binding somewhat loosened near beginning; upper edge of title page remargined. Several contemporary marginalia. Occcasional light fingerstaining, but altogether clean and well-preserved.

Second edition, excessively rare and "plus correcte et plus estimée que la première" (Palha). Afonso d' Albuquerque (1453-1515), the Great, was one of the most striking personalities in the history of Portuguese discovery and colonialism and is the founder of the Portuguese Empire in the East Indies. Albuquerque advanced the three-fold Portuguese grand scheme of combatting Islam and securing the trade of spices and the establishment of a vast Portuguese Asian empire. He was the first European to enter the Persian Gulf, led the first voyage by a European fleet into the Red Sea, and was also the first westerner to reach the coast of South-Eastern Arabia: "In 1506 Albuquerque was despatched from Lisbon on an expedition, intended to consolidate Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean. His instructions were to monopolize trade with East India for portugal, and to exclude both Venetians and Saracens from Indian waters [...] Attacks were made on the Arab ports at Malindi, Hoja, Lamu and Brava, before continuing to Socotra [...] Sailing from Socotra with six ships, Albuquerque coasted the Arabian peninsula, sacked Muscat and Sohar, and then launched an attack on Hormuz during the months of September and October 1507. In spite of the overwhelming forces assembled against him by the island's twelve-year-old ruler, Albuquerque mounted a successful siege, with the result that the ruler become a vassal of the Portuguese crown [...] The famous 'Commentaries' [...] were published by his son Alfonso [...], collected from his father's papers. The only documents actually originating from the father are in the form of letters" (Howgego I, 19-21). - Of the utmost rarity: only the 1774 edition is recorded in ABPC. The only copy of the present edition in the trade so far was the one sold by Reiss in 1989 (Auction 40, Travel and Exploration, lot 395). - Provenance: Acquired from the collection of Dom Diogo de Bragança, Marquês de Marialva (1930-2011), with his bookplate on front pastedown. Formerly in the library of Miguel de Faria with his gilt supralibros on front cover.

Third edition, reprinted for the first time after the 1576 edition. Afonso d' Albuquerque (1453-1515), the Great, was one of the most striking personalities in the history of Portuguese discovery and colonialism and is the founder of the Portuguese Empire in the East Indies. Albuquerque advanced the three-fold Portuguese grand scheme of combating Islam and securing the trade of spices and the establishment of a vast Portuguese Asian empire. He was the first European to enter the Persian Gulf, led the first voyage by a European fleet into the Red Sea, and was also the first westerner to reach the coast of South-Eastern Arabia: "In 1506 Albuquerque was despatched from Lisbon on an expedition, intended to consolidate Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean. His instructions were to monopolize trade with East India for Portugal, and to exclude both Venetians and Saracens from Indian waters [...] Attacks were made on the Arab ports at Malindi, Hoja, Lamu and Brava, before continuing to Socotra [...] Sailing from Socotra with six ships, Albuquerque coasted the Arabian peninsula, sacked Muscat and Sohar, and then launched an attack on Hormuz during the months of September and October 1507. In spite of the overwhelming forces assembled against him by the island's twelve-year-old ruler, Albuquerque mounted a successful siege, with the result that the ruler become a vassal of the Portuguese crown [...] The famous 'Commentaries' [...] were published by his son Alfonso [...], collected from his father's papers. The only documents actually originating from the father are in the form of letters" (Howgego I, 19-21). - A good, clean copy.

First French edition of the life of Almansor, the Arabic conqueror and ruler of Spain in the tenth century. Translated from "La Verdadera Historia del Rey Rodrigo" by Gilles de Rainssant. The author, the Moorish apologist Miguel de Luna, first published this historical work in two parts in 1592 and 1600. Although presented as a translation from an Arabic manuscript, it was almost certainly of his own composition. It is important as a sympathetic account of the Moorish conquest of Spain and offers numerous accounts of the humanity and cultivation of an Arabic prince. His pre-eminence in science and learning is dwelt upon, and there is an interesting account of the formation of his vast library: he is said to have offered twice the market value for any book he found wanting from his collections. This rare French edition marks an early and remarkable point in the emergent French interest in the Arab world. - Slight browning throughout. Bookplate of Eugène Vignat (1815-95), Mayor of Orléans and Député of Lorient. A good copy. Rare.

First edition in book form ("Extrait du Journal Asiatique, 9. sér., v. 3-7, 1894-96"). The French scholar Henri Sauvaire (1849-96), a leading photographer and numismatic collector, served as a Consul in Damascus and Casablanca. He spent the last years of his life writing on Arab culture. In 1864 he embarked on translating into French the "Description of Damascus" by Abd al-Basit al-Amawi, who lived in Damascus in the mid-16th century (d. 1573/4). - Rare and well-preserved.

The "Fortalitatium fidei", the principal work (written c. 1458) of the baptized Spanish Jew de Spina, is considered the "methodical and ideological foundation of the Inquisition. The book, divided into five chapters, targets chiefly Jews and Muslims" (cf. LMA I, 408f.). Of the five books, "the first [is] directed against those who deny the Divinity of Christ, the second against heretics, the third against the Jews, and the fourth against Islam and the Muslims, while the fifth book treats of the battle to be waged against the Gates of Hell. In this last book the author dwells at length upon the demons and their hatred of men; the powers they have over men and the diminution of these powers, owing to the victory of Christ on the Cross, the final condition of the demons, etc." (Catholic Encyclopaedia). "Ouvrage fort curieux de ce théologien espagnol [...] il était dit-on d'origine juive, c'est pour cela que son 'Fortalicium' pèut ètre classé dans une bibliothèque kabbalistique" (Caillet). - Binding rubbed, hinges beginning to split. Wants first two leaves, final blank and counter-leaf L1. Some waterstaining and soiling near beginning and end, some slight edge defects. Bookplate of the great French anthropologist and anatomist Paul Broca to pastedown.

First complete French edition. The account of the siege of the fortress of Candia, Crete, based on the reports of Giovanni Battista Rostagno, secretary to Duke Charles Emmanuel II of Milan, was first published in Italian in 1668. The engraved title page depicts the siege of Candia. - Ownership of the Swedish nobleman Corfitz Christian count Beck-Friis (dated Stockholm, 1876); unobtrusive ownership stamp to title page. Last in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer (his ms. ownership to endpaper; dated Zuroch, 28 March 1992).

Second edition (first published in 1651). "Cette biographie est un des livres classiques de la langue portugaise" (Brunet). Includes an account of the battles at Ormuz between the Turks and the Arabs. Dom João de Castro (1500-48) was a naval officer and later Viceroy of Portuguese India. In 1538 he embarked on his first voyage to India, arriving at Goa and immediately proceeding to the defence of Diu. Castro was responsible for the overthrow of Mahmud, King of Gujarat whose interests threatened Portuguese control of the Goan coast. His voyages frequently took him to the coasts of Arabia, and his present biography contains many details about the Peninsula, especially about Aden and the sea route to Mecca. Castro died in Goa in 1548 and was initially buried there, but his remains were later exhumed and transferred to Portugal. - Some fingerstaining at the beginning, otherwise fine. Contemporary ms. ownerships to printed title page and flyleaf.

Second edition of this dissertation about the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, first published in 1677, including a description of the location of Mecca (where the grave was believed to be situated) and an account of the Prophet's body being preserved in a box of iron, levitated in mid-air by magnetic forces. - The Danzig-born theologian Samuel Andreae (1640-99) had taught Greek, Philosophy, Rhetorics, and History before settling at the Hessian university of Marburg, where he served as professor of Theology and head of the university library. Several of his academic works offer a historical slant on Biblical topics. The physician Johann Philipp Jordis (1658-1721/25) studied in Utrecht and practised in Frankfurt from 1685 onwards. - Browned throughout due to paper. No copy in America, according to OCLC.

First edition, text and atlas together. Descended from a family of canal builders, Antoine François Conte Andreossi (1761-1828) served at the French embassy in Constantinople from 1811 to 1814, when he was recalled to France by Louis XVIII, much to the dismay of the local French community. Some of the plates show his beloved waterways and fountains; they also include a view of the Hippodrome and Mosque of Sultan Ahmed. - Slight worming to hinges of atlas; old stamp to first engraved plates. Bookplate of Dr. Th. Weber (no. 518).

Extremely rare first edition of this early Dutch "Life of Muhammad", illustrated with a woodcut of the bearded Prophet preaching to three prostrate devotees. Authored anonymously by "G. S.", the work suggests an unusual European interest in the founder of Islam - at a particularly tense moment in relations between the West and the Islamic World, shortly after the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It is formidably rare, and is not recorded at Anglo-American or German auctions in the last 50 years. - As the title suggests, the present work was designed to offer a "very remarkable and true History of Muhammad, in which is described and treated his birth, lineage, life and teachings". Although ostensibly a translation of an earlier 16th century work by the Spanish Muslim-turned-Christian Juan Andrés, the "Warachtighe Historie van Mahomet" is in fact a skillful re-working of Andrés meant to focus the reader's attention on the central figure of Muhammad, rather than on the religion itself. Comparison of the present text with the Spanish original indicates that it is in fact based only loosely on Andrés's text. Instead, the "Warachtighe Historie van Mahomet" presents Muhammad's life in detail before discussing, for example, his status as a prophet and the miracles worked by him. Its dozens of chapter headings, as a glance at the table of contents shows, almost all explicitly center around Muhammad himself: "The Jews of Medina argue against Muhammad"; "Muhammad's Men take the City of Mecca"; "Muhammad comes to the aid of Heraclius against the King of Persia"; etc. The "History of Muhammad" continues through to his illness and death, as well as a few chapters on his successors Abu Bakr and Umar (fol. 90). An overview of the contents of the Qur'an is also given (fols. 91-95), and a lengthy dialogue is reproduced in full between the rabbi Abdias Ben Shalom (subsequently known as Abdallah Ibn Shelem) and Muhammad, who eventually converts the Jew - a passage found at the end of the Qur'an. Whatever his motives, the composer of the present Dutch "translation" evidently had a remarkably keen interest in the historical personage of Muhammad, and it is the Prophet's life and deeds which become the focus of the narrative. - As Vincente Cantarino notes, "after the middle of the fifteenth century, and as a direct consequence of the Ottoman expansion in eastern Europe, there was a resurgence of the medieval interest in the composition of treatises dealing with and arguing against the religion of Islam" (p. 27). The most important western work on Islam during this period was undoubtedly Juan Andrés's "Confusion de la Secta Mahometica y d'l Alcora". Andrés, who had only converted in 1487, was unique among early Christian writers on Islam. "The authority that the author commanded was due in part to the fact that he had been a Muslim alfaqui and had become a priest and a missionary after his conversion to Christianity" (p. 28). Of Andrés's early life we know very little: "His father, Abdala, was an alfaqui in the same city. His education was strictly religious and that he seems to have known the Koran well and been familiar with the Sunna, Sira, and Koran commentators" (ibid). To date, Andrés's work has received only cursory attention in the relevant literature, and the present "translation" seems so rare that it is virtually unknown to scholars. With its curiously explicit focus on Muhammad, however, this Dutch adaptation reveals much about northern European attitudes towards a Muslim enemy they had never encountered in the flesh, and is certainly worthy of further scholarly research in itself. - Lengthy closed tear on leaf 80 not affecting the legibility of the text; otherwise a very good copy, pages clean and fresh.

Epic poem on the events of the first crusade (1486-99), led by Godfrey of Bouillon. The work was written at almost the same time as Tasso's like-themed "Gerusalemme Liberata": while this is the first edition under the title "Hierosolyma", it was actually already published in Paris in 1582 (bks. 1-2) and 1584 (bks. 3-4), then in Rome in 1585 (bks. 1-6), and finally, in all 12 books, separately in 1591 under the title "Syrias" (cf. Brunet I, 288). Petrus Angelus Bargaeus (1517-92) was a scholar and professor at the universities of Pisa and Rome. - Rather strong brownstaining, occasional waterstaining. Some contemporary underlining and ms. line-numbers supplied throughout. OCLC locates single copy in America (Houghton Library, Harvard).

Antes, John. Observations on the Manners and Customs of the... Egyptians, the Overflowing of the Nile and its Effects. London, Stockdale, 1800. London, Stockdale, 1800. 4to. 139, (5) pp. With folding engr. map. Later cloth.

EUR 850.00

First edition. - Includes observations "on the Plague in Egypt", "on the Overflowing of the RIver Nile, and the Qualities of its Water", "on the Climate and Seasons of the Year in Egypt", and "on the Situation of Egypt relative toi commercial Advantages", as well as "A Specimen of Turkish Justice, or, rather, of that of the Mamelucks in Egypt". John Antes was a missionary of the Moravian Church resident in Egypt from 1770 to 1781. He "produced this work in answer to those of Savary and Volney" (Blackmer). - Some foxing to title page. This copy is from the collection of the author's descendants, with several inscriptions on the flyleaf. Later in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer.

Very rare topographical work about Mesopotamia and Babylonia, written by one of the greatest cartographers and geographical writers of his age. The large-format map was also sold separately and is almost never encountered together with the book it was meant to accompany. It shows the area from Kayseri in Anatolia to Tabriz and Basra and "offre les noms anciens et modernes placés comparativemente" (Notice, no. 54). The supplement on Basra announced at the end of the books is not bound with any known copy and was probably never published; the Anville bibliography states "160 pages" (i.e., 148+12). - Covers somewhat rubbed; spine, corners and inner hinges restored in the early 20th c. A somewhat foxed, but wide-margined copy. Covers bear giltstamped arms of the "Society of Writers to the Signet", one of the oldest British legal associations (founded in 1594); their shelfmarks on pastedown; their contemporary ms. ownership note on t. p. The Burrell copy (described as "without the supplement on Basra") fetched £632 in 1999.

First edition of this valuable and beautifully illustrated survey of the costumes worn at the court of the Ottoman Empire, published with the text in both French and Turkish. Ministers, state officials and military officers (including intelligence service) are shown in full costume with their functions captioned in Arabic and French below. Although the lithographic title states 'Tome 1er', no further volume was published in either language. - Arif Pasha fought against the Greeks at Athens and at Euboea (1826-28), and in Syria against Mehmet Ali. His career included a number of missions for the Sultan and his appointment, in 1861, as governor of the province of Silistria. - A little marginal soiling, a few closed tears, portrait lacking tip of lower corner, but overall a good, complete copy of the rare coloured issue.

First edition of the valuable and beautifully illustrated survey of the costume worn at the court of the Ottoman Empire, published with the text in both French and Turkish. Ministers, state officials and military officers (including intelligence service) are shown in full costume with their functions captioned in Arabic and French below. Although the lithographic title states 'Tome 1er', no further volume was published in either language. - Arif Pasha fought against the Greeks at Athens and at Euboea (1826-28), and in Syria against Mehmet Ali. His career included a number of missions for the Sultan and his appointment in 1861 as governor of the province of Silistria.

Second edition of this compilation of prophecies about the expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire. First published in 1684, the year after the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna. - Niccolò Arnù (1629-92) held the chair of Metaphysics at the university of Padova; among his many works is a commentary on the "Summa Theologica" of St. Thomas Aquinas (cf. Wetzer/Welte I, 1440). - Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer.

Second edition of this travelogue, first published from the author's posthumous papers by La Roque in 1717. D'Arvieux (1635-1702) lived in the Levant for a long time, spending six years at Aleppo as French consul, and collected these important observations on the Arabic Bedouins of the area. "His observations, which departed greatly from what had been formerly reported about the Bedouins, were received with doubt, but were confirmed by later travellers such as Niebuhr" (cf. Henze I, 101). The plates show costumes and the Bedouin camp on Mt. Carmel (with a view of Haifa). - Binding rubbed and slightly bumped. Browned throughout due to paper; insignificant worming near beginning and end. Old catalogue entry mounted on front pastedown; t. p. has ms. ownership of the library of St. Lambert (dated 1749).

First and only edition of this rare description of the Arabian Peninsula and its inhabitants, as well as of the Muslims' annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The French diplomat Louis-Marie-Adolphe Lévesque, Baron d'Avril (1822-1904), served as Minister Plenipotentiary. Includes Heinrich Kiepert's groundbreaking map of the region (in German, folding, with slight tear near inner edge). Interior somewhat foxed throughout; altogether a good, very appealingly bound copy in excellent condition. Sold for £2,800 at Sotheby's (Oct 14, 1999, lot 61: Burrell copy).

Avril, Philippe, SJ. Travels into divers parts of Europe and Asia,... undertaken by the French king's order to discover a new way by land into China [...] Together with a description of Great Tartary, and of the different people who inhabit there [...] To which is added, a supplement extracted from Hakluyt and Purchas; giving an account of several journeys over land from Russia, Persia, and the Moguls country to China. London, Tim Goodwin, 1693. London, Tim Goodwin, 1693. 12mo. (12), 191, (1) pp. 178, (2) pp. With title-page printed in red and black. Modern half calf.

EUR 2,500.00

First English edition of an account by the French missionary Philippe Avril, relating his travels in search of an overland route to China and the Far East. Avril embarked in 1685 in Livorno and travelled through Syria, Kurdistan, Armenia and Persia. He returned to France via Constantinople, Russia, Moldavia and Poland, arriving home in 1690. - Owner's entry on title page. Annotated in pencil. Some minor browning; tear in A2; otherwise in good condition.

[Bahrein] - Cox, L[eslie] R[eginald]. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Palaeontologica... Indica, being figures and descriptions of the organic remains procured during the progress of the geological survey of India. Published by order of the Government of India. New Series. Vol. XXII, Memoir No. 2. Plates I to VIII. Fossil Mollusca from Southern Persia (Iran) and Bahrein Island. Calcutta & Delhi, Geological Survey of India, 1936. Calcutta & Delhi, Geological Survey of India, 1936. Large folio (268 x 365 mm). (4), II, 69, (3) pp. With 8 numbered plates.

EUR 450.00

Scientific, well-illustrated study of fossil mollusca from the Gulf region, in particular those found in Bahrein. Inscribed by the author to the British geologist Arthur Elijah Trueman (1894-1956): "Professor A. E. Trueman, With the Author's kind regards" and with Trueman's ownership stamp.

First edition of the Arabic text. The Swedish scholar Gustaf Knös (1773-1828) studied in Göttingen and (under Silvestre de Sacy) in Paris. He held the Uppsala chair of oriental languages from 1814 until 1828. Apart from his large Syriac chrestomathy, his edition of the "Bakhtiyar Namah", or "History of the Ten Viziers" (an offshoot story of the 1001 Arabian Nights, in which the Arabic version of the tale is sometimes included), was to become his principal work. The present edition, based on a manuscript discovered in Cairo, contains the Arabic text only; a Latin translation with annotations followed (in dissertation form) in 1814. Later, following a spiritial crisis, Knös lost all interest in philology and produced no more works. - Spine somewhat sunned. An excellent, virtually unbrowned copy.

First edition of this travelogue by the Venetian state jeweller and merchant, containing much information useful to the contemporary merchant, including rates of exchange, duties, travel routes and distances as well as a detailed account of the pearling grounds in the Arabian Gulf. As only recent research by B. J. Slot (cf. below) has revealed, Balbi was "the first writer to record the place names between al-Qatif and Oman that are still in use today" (UAE: A New Perspective, 74). Thus, the present volume constitutes the earliest printed source for the history of the UAE, Qatar, and Oman. Balbi's "interest in the area lay in the pearls that came from the oyster beds of which the most extensive are those in the waters around al-Bahrayn, those off the Qatar peninsula and especially those in the western waters of Abu Dhabi. Either taking his information first-hand from a local individual or using a navigator’s list, Balbi recorded place-names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman [...] he is the first to refer to many of these places using the names by which they are known today" (G. King, cf. below). According to Slot, "practically none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (36). The present work is also of the utmost significance for "includ[ing] the first European record of the Bani Yas tribe" (UAE yearbook 2005, 46) - the first printed mention of the largest and most important tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, from which emerged both the Al Nahyan and the Al Maktoum dynasties, today's ruling families of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. - Rare: the present original edition is recorded in no more than some 20 copies worldwide (only two in the U.S., according to OCLC); most libraries hold only the Rome 1962 reprint or the mikrofiche edition (New Haven 1974). An Arabic translation was published in 2008 (OCLC 298925737); an English translation has not been prepared to this day. - An excellent copy from the library of the French librarian and theological writer (Joseph) Léon Clugnet (1848-1920) with his ownership, dated 1882 and numbered 335, on the title page.

First Dutch edition of Balbi's acclaimed "Viaggio dell' Indie Orientali", first published in Italian in 1590. Balbi, a Venetian jewel merchant, travelled extensively in the Arabian Peninsula in search of precious stones. From Venice he sailed for Aleppo, proceeding to Bir and from there overland to Baghdad, descending the Tigris to Basra, where he embarked for India. While in the Persian Gulf, he studied the pearl industry, noting that the best pearls were to be found at Bahrain and Julfar. He refers to islands in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (including Sir Bani Yas and Das) and to several coastal settlements that were to become permanently established, such as Dubai and Ras al Khaima. Balbi was the first to record the place names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Practically "none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (Slot). - Bound with four other 16th-century travel reports, all published independently by van der Aa but re-issued as a collection in 1707.

First Dutch edition of Balbi's acclaimed "Viaggio dell' Indie Orientali", first published in Italian in 1590. Balbi, a Venetian jewel merchant, travelled extensively in the Arabian Peninsula in search of precious stones. From Venice he sailed for Aleppo, proceeding to Bir and from there overland to Baghdad, descending the Tigris to Basra, where he embarked for India. While in the Persian Gulf, he studied the pearl industry, noting that the best pearls were to be found at Bahrain and Julfar. He refers to islands in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (including Sir Bani Yas and Das) and to several coastal settlements that were to become permanently established, such as Dubai and Ras al Khaima. Balbi was the first to record the place names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Practically "none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (Slot). - Brownstained and slightly wrinkled, with occasional edge defects.